An Examination of the Recidivism Rates among Arizona Gang Members and Drug Offenders

The Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety submitted this proposal in partnership with the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission's Statistical Analysis Center. The research project was awarded through the Justice Research and Statistics Association.  The study compared recidivism rates among gang members and drug offenders who had been convicted and sentenced to prison in the state of Arizona with that of the general offender population. Two data extracts were provided from the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission.  The first was official data on those individuals who have been admitted to the Arizona Department of Corrections.  This database contained such information as their offense upon conviction, gang membership, sentence length, admission and release dates, risk assessment scores, socio-demographic characteristics, and other official records pertaining to sentencing and imprisonment.  The second data set contained the arrest records of those individuals who had been admitted to the Arizona Department of Corrections.

Research Staff

Charles M. Katz, Ph.D.
Jessica Saunders, Ph.D.
Gary Sweeten, Ph.D.
Nancy Rodriguez, Ph.D.

Documents

Saunders, J., Sweeten, G., and Katz, C. (2009). Post-Release Recidivism among Gang and Non-Gang Prisoners in Arizona from 1985 through 2004. Arizona State University: Phoenix, AZ.

Rodriguez, N. and Saunder, J. (2009). The Re-Incarceration of Prisoners in Arizona: A Focus on Drug Offenders. Arizona State University: Phoenix, AZ.

Documents: